


A Farewell to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

by The_Violet_Howler



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Essays, Gen, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:42:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25639717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Violet_Howler/pseuds/The_Violet_Howler
Summary: My reaction to the announcement that Agents of SHIELD Season 7 would be the final season.
Kudos: 2





	A Farewell to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this after San Diego Comic Con 2019 to process my reaction to the announcement that Season 7 would be the end of the show. I ended up not doing anything with it, but now that we finally have a start date for the season I wanted to share it now:

On Thursday July 18th, Marvel TV head Jeff Loeb announced that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the first TV show ever released as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, would come to an end following the conclusion of its seventh season in 2020. Despite the unexpectedness of the announcement, the fandom wasn’t completely caught of guard. After the show had moved from the standard 22-episode season to a 13-episode summer season,we were expecting the show to only last a few more years. But that did not make the announcement any less emotional.

For me personally, I was stunned at first. I even let loose the waterworks for a few minutes. After the show was renewed for Season 7 before the sixth season had even aired, I suspected that we would only have one or two more years left with the characters I’ve grown to love. But I still felt overwhelmed by the finality that the show’s ending had been officially confirmed.

Once the shock of the announcement faded, though, I was able to calm myself. It was something that we had all known was in the cards since the Season 7 renewal back in November 2018. To be perfectly honest, I’m pretty sure most of us were surprised the show had even lasted as long as it did.

After the first few episodes when the show premiered back in 2013, critics and comic fans quickly turned from praising the show to harshly criticizing week after week. They all felt that the season’s overarching story arc felt like it was spinning its wheels, and despite the initial expectations of more direct tie ins with the movies and appearances by notable comic characters, the first season felt more like a case-of-the-week show focused on a group of original characters that die-hard comic fans had no inclination to care about. 

While those critics and fans bailed on the show over disappointed expectations, those of us who stuck around were rewarded for our patience in the second half of the season, when the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier allowed the show to finally peel back the curtain on the season’s overall mystery and set up an exciting new conflict for the episodes to come.

The reveal that HYDRA had been hiding within S.H.I.E.L.D. for decades, and the spy agency’s subsequent dissolution at the end of the 2014 Captain America film, breathed new life into the show and the characters. The reveal that Grant Ward had been an undercover HYDRA agent all along would drive the conflict for not only the rest of the season, but for future seasons to come.

Despite the boost the HYDRA reveal gave it, by the end of Season 1, we were uncertain whether Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would ever be renewed for a second season. Things had been mostly wrapped up as far as the season’s main arc was concerned, but the last episode had also set up new conflicts and new mysteries that needed to be answered. Fortunately for those dedicated fans, a few weeks later it was announced that the show would be back for at least one more year.

When Season 2 arrived that September, it came with a new direction and energy that kept the story moving along at a brisk pace and avoided unnecessarily prolonging arcs. Now that the writers were no longer hampered by having to avoid spoilers for a major Marvel movie, they had the freedom to spread things out and reveal plot points and mysteries in a more organic way.

After Season 2 ended on two cliffhangers, again we feared that the show would be cancelled. The announcement that the show had been renewed for Season 3 was a relief.

For the last several years, this pattern has persisted, with the fandom constantly fearing the ax of cancellation season after season, but the show still managing to retain a strong enough following to keep coming back. And each season, the show continued to improve itself into one of the best comic book shows on television. It was smart, funny, and self-aware enough to point out when things get ridiculous without ever coming across as insincere.

While Marvel’s live-action series on Netflix like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage all debuted to critical acclaim, I could never get into them the way that everyone around me seemed to. I could see from an objective standpoint why these characters and their stories appealed to people, but there was a spark which these shows lacked that kept me from fully engaging with them.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. not only had that spark, it grew that spark into a roaring flame that it continued to keep burning all the way through to Season 6. In the early days I figured the show would either end with three seasons, or its series finale would tie in with what is now Avengers Endgame (back then it was just Infinity War Part 2). But now that it’s officially been cancelled, I’m glad that it lasted as long as it did.

With the announcement of Disney’s new streaming service Disney+, the Netflix shows began dropping like flies. First Luke Cage was cancelled. Then Iron Fist. Followed by Daredevil and the Punisher, with Jessica Jones the last to fall. It seemed as if any Marvel content that wasn’t going to be on Disney+ was having its plug pulled, leaving Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s small but active fanbase fearing once more for the future of our series.

The end of Season 5 had largely wrapped up all of the show’s loose ends with a few avenues left open for things to continue. Though Season 6 had already been announced at the time “The End” aired, the episode had been written and filmed under the assumption that it would serve as a series finale if the show didn’t get renewed. So we were all concerned that Season 6 could end on a cliffhanger and then be cancelled before the story could be resolved.

The news in November 2018 that the show would also be getting a seventh season was cause for celebration, not just at the fact that the story would continue, but that whatever was happening behind scenes with Marvel and the Netflix shows, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would be spared from cancellation for the time being.

It is a source of triumphant irony that the show critics and audiences turned on and wrote off early on managed to outlast all of Marvel’s other shows. The Netflix shows have come and gone, but Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is still here, chugging along like The Little TV Show That Could. Runaways ended with its third season in late 2019, and Cloak and Dagger was cancelled after its second. WandaVision, Loki, and Falcon & the Winter Soldier are premiering on Disney+ within the next year, but it will be a long time before any of them are able to top Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in terms of both the number of years they’ve been “on the air” and in terms of the number of episodes released.

For one hundred twenty-three episodes, the amazingly talented cast and crew have been delivering one standout performance after another, continuing to keep audiences invested in their characters on an emotional level through all the drama and comedy and action and heartbreak. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues to be one of – if not _the_ greatest comic book show on television, and I have full faith that the cast and crew will finish things off with style. It’s been one hell of a ride with this show, and I’m going to miss it when it ends.


End file.
